ANAHEIM – Before addressing the possible breakup, let’s start with the blessed union.

Training camp hasn’t even opened yet, after all. With everybody still undefeated and tied for the top playoff spot, now is the time for optimism and futures bright enough to blind.

So, one month ago this week, Jonas Hiller married his longtime girlfriend, Karolina, in a small ceremony attended by 80 guests …and viewed by thousands of others without invitations.

“Outside the church, I guess they had a camera set up,” the Ducks goalie explained. “We didn’t even know it. The next morning, we got up and people were saying, ‘Hey, we saw you guys on TV last night.’ We had no idea.”

But that’s the celebrity life, even in Switzerland, where Hiller is so well-known and recognized – keep in mind he wears a mask every second he’s working – that total strangers can tell you he loves Metallica and “The Simpsons.”

The goalie and his girl then honeymooned on the Maldive Islands, which are surrounded by the Indian Ocean and nothing else. This was after Hiller filed away last spring’s playoff disappointment with a week in Cabo San Lucas.

In the offseason, hockey players evidently not only have to recoup but also defrost.

“Yeah, I traveled quite a bit this summer,” Hiller said. “I was all over the place.”

He returned to Southern California last week, and now, as he readies for his seventh season here, the question is this: Does Hiller have another destination in his near future?

At 31, he is entering the final year of his contract, looking at a situation where he figures to share time with Viktor Fasth, playing in an organization that has depth at his position.

Among the goalies in camp this preseason will be John Gibson, a 20-year-old who projects as a minor leaguer this year but also has the potential to become an NHL star.

Given the circumstances, it’s pretty easy to forecast Hiller’s time running out here. But, much like the weather, forecasts can change dramatically if the circumstances do.

“I can’t force it,” Hiller said. “In the end, all I can try to do is play well. I’d definitely like to stay. I know my way around here. I’ve always liked being here. I’d be happy to stay. I guess we’ll see how things go.”

So, at this point, Hiller could re-sign with the Ducks, play out his contract and become a free agent, or be traded during the season.

Other than that, everything is pretty much settled for a man playing for his team certainly, but, this season more than any other during his career, also playing for himself.

Hiller signed his previous contract extension – four years, $18 million – in January of 2010, calling the deal “perfect” and noting, “When I’m done, I’ll be 32 and I’ll still have a chance of signing another contract.”

He was the Ducks’ undisputed No. 1 then, on his way to becoming an Olympian and an NHL All-Star.

Hiller could be an Olympian again this season, but an All-Star? That would qualify as unexpected.

“All I can do is play as well as I can, and we’ll see where it goes,” he said. “If we’re doing well as the Ducks, that probably means I’m doing well. On the other side, if we have a tough year, it’s hard to have a good year as a goalie.”

Though not spectacular, he was solid last season, playing his best at the end. In the playoffs, Hiller started all seven games as the Ducks lost in the opening round to Detroit. Five of those seven games were decided by one goal. Four went to overtime.

In other words, the teams were separated by a margin thinner than the blue line.

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau was sorting through his desk recently when he came across the game summaries from that series. As much as he might have wanted to set fire to the papers – if not his entire office – Boudreau successfully swallowed the urge.

“You go over everything again,” he said. “You think about what you could have done, why you lost. It really stinks because I think for five of those seven games we were the better team. But that’s what’s sports is about. It was hard to watch Detroit in that next series.”

Hiller said he purposefully avoided watching the remainder of the playoffs. He only checked the scores on occasion.

“Everybody thought we had a good chance to move to the next round,” he said. “Detroit had a great series against Chicago and then Chicago won the Cup in the end. So you can see everything was real close. We could have been there.”

The Ducks have another chance this season. So does Hiller. It could be his last one here.

They’ve had a productive partnership, these two. But their marriage will really be tested now.

Jeff Miller has been a sports columnist since 1998, having previously written for the Palm Beach Post, South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Miami Herald. He began at the Register in 1995 as beat writer for the Angels.

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